Month: October 2016

My earliest memories centre around books. I remember distinctly the thrill I got as a child, when my mother finished reading to me and kissed me goodnight, and I pretended to snuggle down under the covers. As soon as I heard her footsteps on the stairs I would reach out for the book she had left on the bedside table and, in the dim light from the nightlight, read on. Such marvellous adventures were read, sneakily, until my eyes were too tired to continue.

All my life I have experienced profound emotions while reading; excitement, sadness, revelations of a spiritual nature, moments of empathy. The person I am now has been shaped by other people’s words and the feel and scent of their pages. Nowadays I also enjoy reading on my Kindle, which enables me to indulge my passion while travelling – without worrying about the weight-limit books used to cause.

So, I suppose it was inevitable that as I grew up I would become a writer myself. I was very lucky to find a great publisher for my sailing memoir “A Whisper on the Mediterranean”. Sunpenny and Boathooks Books provided me with an amazing group of professionals to help me edit and polish my book and their other authors have given much support and friendship.

However, before I found my publisher I self-published my literary novel “The Song of the Cypress” and being an indie author has been a fantastic experience too. I still edit rigidly but can allow myself to write from the heart and show my readers exactly what the world feels like to me, in the Tuscan valley I call home. From my reader’s comments it would seem that I have succeeded in sharing this remarkable beauty with them. To have been able to shape other people’s experiences with my words is the greatest gift I could have wished for.

I love being able to show people what creates strong emotion within me and take them with me into that experience; make them curl up with laughter, become clammy with a panic that gnaws through them from the inside, or share my delight in the feel of soft moss on a gnarled tree trunk. I want to make them desire to stroke the purple-velvet mountains at dusk, before the night renders them invisible or to make them stop in their frenetic lives, to meditate upon the fragile reflection vibrating within a drop of dew.

I find life a constant source of amusement too. A lot of my writing is humorous and I believe that laughter is life’s strongest medicine. If I am ever feeling down I conjure up a vision of my dog and her unconditional love and sublime joy. I defy anyone to remain stuck in misery when confronted with a dog who is all waggle, from nose to tail.

Look out for my new books which are soon to be released. The first, a novel, “The Melting of Miss Angelina Snow”, is a light-hearted love story between two oddly-matched protagonists. Life is not always so carefree however, and no one passes through it without moments of pain, fear or worry. My book “Uniquely You” will be guide to the tools we all possess deep inside to help us confront and overcome those times and be able to live the life we choose as unique individuals.

I read, and write, from the heart. What I want from a book is for it to open up all my senses and show me something new. I hope that I will never stop observing, learning and sharing. on this amazing journey that we call life.

For more information about me and my writing, visit my author page on Amazon.com